A conservative legal action group filed suit in U.S. District Court March 27 challenging the patron-access policy of Planned Parenthood's Audre Rapoport Library in Waco, Texas.
The United States Justice Foundation claims Planned Parenthood of Central Texas violated the rights of Rev. Rusty Thomas—a pro-life activist who heads Elijah Ministries and is also lead plaintiff in the lawsuit—to free speech, peaceable assembly, expressive conduct, and the free exercise of religion when he was prevented from entering the facility's library during an open house last October. Library policy requires patrons to make appointments before visiting and also “reserves the right to deny access to . . . anyone who has participated in protests against Planned Parenthood,” according to the March 28 WorldNetDaily online news.
Justice Foundation Executive Director Gary Kreep charges that the policy denies a “whole class of people, simply because of their religious beliefs, access to a branch of the public library.”
Some 20 people gathered outside the facility last October to protest an arrangement in which Planned Parenthood pays the city of Waco several hundred dollars a year to have its collection of reproductive health and sexuality materials—approximately 1,000 books, pamphlets, and educational media—included in the Waco–McLennan County Library System catalog.
Betty Crook, chair of the county library commission, has pointed out that the Planned Parenthood facility isn't a branch of the county library system, and that no city employees work there. “It's just a way residents can have access to some of those materials,” she said.
Posted April 7, 2003.